Matt Lehrman is a civic facilitator, leadership coach, and keynote speaker who helps municipal governments, school boards, and nonprofit organizations lead more effectively amid division and dysfunction. Known for creating space where people feel heard and respected, Matt helps governing bodies and leadership teams confront conflict, bridge differences, and move from disagreement to constructive action. As co-founder of Social Prosperity Partners, he works nationwide to build trust, strengthen collaboration, and align stakeholders around bold, achievable goals. His sessions are practical, thought-provoking, and grounded in real-world experience— challenging decision-makers to think differently, listen deeply, and lead with greater purpose. He also hosts the Community Catalysts podcast (streaming on all platforms), where listeners gain insight and inspiration from real-world stories of local leadership— revealing how public officials tackle hard challenges, make tough decisions, and foster progress in their communities.
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Dr. Rumman Chowdhury’s passion lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and humanity. She is a pioneer in the field of applied algorithmic ethics, creating cutting-edge socio-technical solutions for ethical, explainable and transparent AI. She is an active contributor to discourse around responsible technology with bylines in the Atlantic, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIT Technology Review and VentureBeat.
Dr. Chowdhury is a data scientist and social scientist. She is the CEO of the tech nonprofit Humane Intelligence, which builds a community of practice around evaluations of AI models, as well as the United States Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Chowdhury is also Responsible AI Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
Previously, Dr. Chowdhury was the Director of the ML Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability (META) team at Twitter, as well as the as Global Lead for Responsible AI at Accenture Applied Intelligence. In her work as Accenture’s Responsible AI lead, she led the design of the Fairness Tool, a first-in-industry algorithmic tool to identify and mitigate bias in AI systems. Dr. Chowdhury co-authored a Harvard Business Review piece on its influences and impact.
Dr. Chowdhury is dedicated to cultivating and growing the next wave of technology-forward companies enabling the responsible use of emerging technologies. She was a General Partner (and founder) of the Parity Responsible Innovation venture capital fund. She also serves as a mentor for the Creative Destruction Lab and as a board member of Startups and Society.
Dr. Chowdhury is deeply engaged in AI global policy, serving as a board member of the UK Center for Data Ethics and Innovation, and on UNESCO’s Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. She has helped shape policy – as advisor to the UK House of Lords Parliamentary group on AI, in her testimony to the FTC, New York City Algorithmic Commission, the UN, OECD, Partnership on AI, and other global AI and ethics organizations.
She serves on multiple boards, including Oxford University’s Commission on AI and Governance, the UK’s Center for Data Ethics and Governance, AI4All, a group dedicated to drawing underrepresented groups into STEM, the SSRC’s Just Tech Advisory Group, the University of Virginia’s Data Science Program, and Patterns, a data science journal by the publishers of Cell.
Dr. Chowdhury has been featured in international media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, NPR, MIT Sloan Magazine, MIT Technology Review, BBC, Axios, Cheddar TV, CRN, The Verge, Fast Company, Quartz, Corrierre Della Serra, Optio, Australian Broadcasting Channel and Nikkei Business Times. She was named one of Time’s 100 most Influential People in AI, BBC’s 100 Women, recognized as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 under 40, and a member of the British Royal Society of the Arts (RSA). She has also been named by Forbes as one of Five Who are Shaping AI.
Dr. Chowdhury holds two undergraduate degrees from MIT, a master’s degree in Quantitative Methods of the Social Sciences from Columbia University, and a doctorate in political science from the University of California, San Diego.